Weekly News Update

*The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriages to commence in Florida, meaning such unions will soon be allowed in five of the nation’s six most populous states. [Washington Post]

*A day after freeing a gang member who posted an anti-cop death threat online, a Brooklyn judge ignored the admonishment of a court boss — and sprung a man who allegedly punched a police officer and threatened to kill his colleagues. [New York Post]

*When New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced he planned to permanently ban high volume hydraulic fracturing, legal minds and oil and gas hopefuls said the time is right for takings lawsuits— the legal concept that, like eminent domain, requires the government to compensate private property owners for assets taken away because of government action. [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]

*While a NY State court recently threw out a request to free a privately owned chimpanzee arguing that the animal was property and had no legal rights, a court in Argentina has ruled that a shy orangutan who spent the last 20 years in a zoo can be granted some legal rights enjoyed by humans. [BBC]

*The federal court in Manhattan, today called the Southern District, claims on its website that a 1789 court session was “the first sitting of any court created under the new Constitution.” But some contend that the Southern District’s claim is nothing more than false advertising. [NY Times]

*Patients, advocates and family members of sick children staged a rally outside New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Manhattan office to demand that the Democrat establish an emergency-access medical marijuana program for the state, one week after an 8-year-old from Niagara Falls died from brain cancer. [Huffington Post]

*The city of New York and Lincoln Center are evicting the invitation-only, twice-yearly Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in a court spat over destroyed trees and displaced park benches. [Fox Business]